So Tony, you call the rules like FED wants them. All the rules, right.
So tell me, and be completely honest, you call a pitch six inches above the belt a strike? Even if only a little tiny bottom portion of the ball were to pass through an imaginary line that is half way between the shoulders and the waistline, you call that a strike right? Because FED is just ever so happy to change any rules it sees fit and their definition of the strike zone says half way between the shoulders and the waistline?
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Originally posted by officialtony
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Originally posted by Bob Lyle
My first sport is football and the underlying philosophy there is "no harm, no foul." When you can explain to me how the pitcher gains an advantage by waving his arm, I'll reconsider my position.
Till then, my well being is more important than the rules, and my interests are best served by having the pitcher and catcher communicating. Why call a balk when a simple warning will do and frankly, I rarely see a hand wave in FED ball.
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My response to you would be that it is not up to me or anyone else to explain the reasoning behind FED rules. When you accept the responsibility of umpiring, you accept the responsibiity of upholding the rules. That would be ALL rules. Not just the ones you like or believe in. I have learned a lot in reading posts on this forum and one thing I have learned is that questioning the logic of a FED rule is useless, upholding the rule is vital. If nothing else it assures consistency among umpires so that when a pitcher does get called for that balk ( and he WILL eventually get called for it by a responsible umpire ), his excuse of " I did it last week and it didn't get called a balk " will sound just as silly as saying that because he stood on the rubber and puled the ball from his glove and threw it back in 3 or 4 times, that is not a balk either. You are not doing any pitcher a favor by not calling this a balk. You want to give a warning, that is your perogative. But if he persists, it's a balk. Certainly only my humble opinion.
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